When students in Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 Master of Integrated Innovation for Products and Services (MII-PS) program stepped into their new building this winter, they walked into an intentionally blank slate. And that couldn鈥檛 be more perfect, because that鈥檚 where these innovators-in-training start. The tasks they will face in their professional lives will involve making products or services better. Or maybe they鈥檒l be charged with creating things that are so original that people won鈥檛 know they can鈥檛 live without them until they try them.
That鈥檚 why the open, flexible studio/laboratory created for these students is so welcome. It鈥檚 a renovated former bank at the edge of Pittsburgh鈥檚 campus. The tables and chairs are mobile, able to be configured from classroom to individual team zones and back again as the spirit moves. 鈥淚t鈥檚 meant to be an active making and thinking space,鈥� says Eric Anderson, an industrial design professor. 鈥淚t will probably have its own personality every year based on the class. The goal is that you鈥檒l walk into this space, and it鈥檒l just have this energy. We tend to have seven or more teams going on at any time, so when you look in each corner, you鈥檒l see a different activity going on.鈥�
A one-year professional program, the MII-PS was previously called the Master of Product Development. The name change comes with the launch of a new 麻豆村 endeavor鈥攖he Integrated Innovation Institute.
The institute is supported by a triumvirate of Carnegie Mellon powerhouses: the , the , and the . In addition to Anderson, the co-directors are Peter Boatwright (Tepper) and Jonathan Cagan (Engineering). Each point out that no discipline is emphasized more than the others; talking to them brings to mind the Three Musketeers motto: All for one, and one for all.That鈥檚 really the beauty of the institute. Students come in with a command in one of the three areas and are cross-trained in the others. They learn how to work alongside the other students, and how to understand each other鈥檚 abilities.
鈥淭he institute is a joint effort of engineering, design, and business鈥攁nd it鈥檚 those programs for a reason,鈥� Boatwright says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to create value, whatever it is, it has to be effective, it has to work. That鈥檚 the engineering discipline. But that鈥檚 not enough.鈥� In addition, says Cagan, 鈥淚t has to excite and connect to people鈥� that鈥檚 design.鈥� The final piece, he points out, is the business side鈥攅conomic viability. The end result is a product or a service that is useful, usable, and desirable to real people in the marketplace, which is the program鈥檚 mantra.
MII-PS has been ranked consistently among the top three Best Graduate Programs in Industrial Design by U.S. News & World Report.
The courses students take in the other disciplines are not generic, says Cagan, but appropriate for understanding what it takes to develop a product. 鈥淲e give them fundamentals in user research and in entrepreneurship as well. We teach them how to understand and uncover what users really need and want.鈥�
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not just learning about the way others think,鈥� Boatwright adds. 鈥淭heir own thinking is transformed, which sets them up to be an industry leader, an innovation leader, a team leader, because they have a new mind set.鈥�
The Integrated Product Development Capstone Course gives students hands-on experience with the 鈥渇uzzy front-end鈥� of product or service development. Students work in teams on projects for well-established companies as well as on projects to develop new market opportunities and innovative products. 鈥淭he institute allows us to come together as these key disciplines and, from the beginning, take wide-open, and in some cases abstract, problem statements and together work on them to define a solution that is valuable to the constituency,鈥� says Anderson. 鈥淲e end up creating a proposal that鈥檚 holistic in its thinking. Not just an end鈥攚hat the solution can be鈥攂ut also why the solution is what it is.鈥�
One product example is , manufacturer of the International LoneStar truck. Recognizing that cross-country trucking is a grueling job, Navistar wanted to add features to its line to keep long-haul drivers in the industry for the long haul. Teams of MII-PS students generated ideas to provide the comforts of home for those who spend weeks at a time on the road.
One team structured a safe environment for pets, because about a third of truck drivers have a furry companion with them on the highway. Features included a harness, gate, collapsible passenger seat, and water jug. Another team developed better sleeping quarters. Top bunks are usually so cumbersome to climb into that most tag-team drivers just throw their sleeping bags down on the lower bunk. A solution was devised to raise and lower the bunks so that each was equally and easily accessible. A third team designed an ergonomic kitchenette for the compact living area in the LoneStar truck so that drivers could cook their own meals on the road instead of eating a steady diet of fast food. Navistar liked the ideas so much they incorporated several of them into their new trucks.
MII-PS is not limited to the Pittsburgh campus. Newly part of the institute is the Master of Science in Software Management program at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, which focuses on software management, innovation and entrepreneurship. In fall 2015, the institute will also offer a Master of Integrated Innovation鈥揘ew York City program as part of 麻豆村鈥檚 Integrative Media Program. And in addition to professional master-level education, the Institute will begin offering Executive Education courses this summer, and continue its efforts in applied research around integrated innovation.
In imagining where the program can go, the co-directors agree, the possibilities鈥攍ike innovation鈥攁re endless.
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